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Friday, June 29, 2012

Hurray! I can't believe I've finished the Skill Builder Sampler series. It's been going for so long! Well, not as long for me as everyone else. I originally found the sampler and started quilting along in November (see my first post here) but everyone else started in June. Then I really couldn't get into it in spite of my best efforts. I decided it was my fabric frustration and restarted in March (see post here). The restart was fabulous and in about three months I cranked out all 36 blocks, some of them for a second time. For all the posts involving sampler blocks go here. Otherwise read on for the last installment...

Block #35 - Feathered Star. I did the paper pieced version (found here) and I loved it. Then again I am a huge fan of all things paper pieced. I think it turned out great! I have only one or two points that will be cut off when sewn to another block. I think that's pretty good all things considering. This block finishes up to 12" so those little HST are REALLY TINY! I don't think I've worked with something that small before.

Block #36 - Alice Brooks Butterfly. Being the last blog in the sampler means this one was hard. Although for me it was more time consuming that really crazy difficult. I only had to unpick twice, which is pretty good with all those crazy curves. I did make it a bit too big and thus the points of the wings will be cut off but either way, hurray!

I decided not to make some of the blocks the second time around and thus I was short a block for my 36 block layout. I decided to go back and do the Bonus Block #2 the Green Mountain Star Block. I loved it! Especially after doing the last blocks of the sampler going back to this one was a piece of cake. It went so quickly and looks pretty sharp.

Here are all my sampler blocks together. I don't know how I'm going to assemble them yet. I may need to think on this one or just see what Leila suggests. Either way this is quite the accomplishment.

Here's a close-up of the bottom left from the group shot.

Here's the bottom right of the group shot.

Top Right of the group shot.

Finally the top left of the group shot.

These are my blocks from my first attempt at the sampler. (See original posts here from top left... one, two, three, four, and five). I was using my scraps which are in a very large tote and it was so hard to find what I needed big enough and that matched the others. Thus, I restarted with new fabric. The top three I remade but the bottom two didn't make the cut the second time around. I replaced them with both bonus blocks. I made them so I could learn the skills but they won't be in the final quilt. The kids love these blocks and have asked me to make pillows out of them. We'll see what happens.

A big thank you to Leila for putting this together. I learned a lot while putting this together and had so much fun!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I find that sewing, especially when I'm doing it, is filled with minor mishaps. Nothing too life shattering but just enough to frustrate and then excite when they are overcome. I had a week FULL of those. I know I'm not alone as I've read about these on several other blogs recently. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and with TNT Thursday at Happy Quilting where I know I'll find people who know what I mean.

Here's the story...

It all started with the Tetris Charm Swap. It is my first ever fabric swap and I'm so excited! I got my fabric from The Intrepid Thread last week and excitedly started cutting the 112 5" squares in each color. Sadly I cut six of the red one 4" x 5". I was so upset! I only had enough fabric if I did it exactly right. I was stressing out and went to Melissa from Happy Quilting to tell her my problem and that I may be a little late getting her the fabric. I went back to The Intrepid Thread to get some more red to be shipped to me and they were sold out. I shot them a quick email to see if they really were sold out or if Julie had enough for six charm squares she could send me. Julie saved the day! Not only did she have enough she sent it to me, including shipping, for FREE! Yup, she's my hero and just earned herself a VERY loyal and happy customer! In the end I got just what I needed and the crisis was averted.

Then we had our next crisis. I have never seen such a huge spider in real life before. I've seen ones that cover a larger area with long legs but this one was beefy. My hubby was out mowing the lawn and spied this spider on our wagon. He grabbed a jar and put it in there. Seriously I wouldn't have been able to get that close to it. The very thought makes me shudder. You see all the tiny baby spiders all over the jar? It wasn't like that when he first put her in. She was huge and had a furry back. A while later my daughter was looking at it and said she thought they might be baby spiders, sure enough they were. At the point when I took this picture they had moved off the mom and were all over the jar. We didn't know what to do with it now. If we opened the lid they'd be everywhere and we couldn't squish them all. The thought of this nasty anywhere near my house was not appealing so in the end we just threw it in the trash, jar and all, for the trash man to pick up today. I was happy to see it go and wish them a happy life in the dump.

I'm on the last three blocks of the Skill Builder Sampler by Leila over at Sewn. This is Block #34 - Newport Compass. I found the pattern here for 99 cents. They have a lot to choose from but I loved this one. It's paper pieced so it looks pretty good but it wasn't without it's mishaps either. When I paper piece I love to cut my pieces much larger than necessary so I don't have to worry about lining them up perfectly. Well, seeing how these were the last blocks in the series I was running low so I had to cut them smaller than I'd like. This led to several unpicking sessions after I didn't align them properly. It all worked out in the end and I just LOVE this block!

Last week I started making hats for preemies in the NICU. I had a lot of fun and made nine (post here). This week I decided to make some for newborn sized babies too. I had two babies in the NICU after their births and they would have been too big for the little hats. I didn't have a pattern for the larger size so I had to make one up myself. This led to a few unravels but in the end I got it just the right size. Also I adore watching TV while I crochet and my lack of attention led me to a couple of missed stitches that I had to unravel back to and fix. Just minor things, especially with a hat this small everything is minor, but a bit frustrating in the end.

Through this week I learned that stuff happens and there is usually an easy solution. Either grab the seam ripper, email you new favorite fabric store, or unravel that yarn. The world keeps on spinning so don't let it ruin your day and just try to make the best of those minor mishaps.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Oh my goodness I've had such a great week! I've worked on and finished a lot. Also, as you may guess from the title, I've been getting more involved in the blogger world and having a blast doing it! I've made new friends (Hi Cynthia!), joined my first ever fabric swap (so excited!), joined two quilt-a-longs (Marioand Tetris). That's all added to my regular to do list, keeping up with the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop, and the Skill Builder Sampler. I also added a bunch more blogs to my blog additions side panel. Finally, I spent WAY too much money on fabric recently and it's beginning to arrive in the mail, hurray!

Today I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced where Sukie is stepping in for Lee this week. As always it's the best place to be on Wednesday to find inspiration for future projects which I love even if I am a tad overbooked.

I'll start with the Crochet projects. I mentioned at the end of my last WiP Wednesday post that I was loving Rosie's Cozies and wanted to make some hats for my local NICU. Well, I've made a bunch of progress with that!

Right after last weeks' post I decided to get going on the crocheted preemie hats. I bought eight new skeins of I Love This Yarn! from Hobby Lobby and added that to a white one I already had at home and I was ready to go. I went with pretty basic baby colors and think I may branch out in the future.

The lady at the Hobby Lobby gave me this GIGANTIC bag. Seriously? I only bought eight skeins! they could have easily fit into two small bags without even trying. This bag is so big my 5.5 year-old can fit inside!

We were having some more fun with the big bag and discovered my two smallest ones could fit at the same time. You know that whole this bag is not a toy thing? Yeah, we totally ignored that! Don't worry though, I didn't let them play with it alone and sadly through all the fun it got a big hole in it so it can't even hold my stuff anymore.

Here's my first preemie hat finish. Isn't it adorable?! I used the pattern from The Dainty Daisy but I modified the ears a little bit. She glued hers on but I worked them in with the backing color and they are double thick with the back used to create an edge. Don't you love you tiny it is? Yes, people can actually have heads this small.

Here are the nine hats I've finished so far, I finished the last two today. I made one in each color with three bears, three with ear flaps, and three bunnies (although my kids think they are Kangaroo ears, odd). I can't wait to make a bunch more! I'll be making newborn size next because I know from personal experience preemies aren't the only babies in the NICU.

Here's a close up of the bunny using my little girl's favorite doll. I created the ear pattern myself and in spite of my kids insisting they are Kangaroo ears I like the way they turned out.

Here's the bear variation. I love the fat edge on those cute ears! I took the ear pattern from the link above and modified it. I may post my patterns later if there is interest, so let me know if you want them.

Here's the ear flap version. LOVE! Again I modified the pattern, I guess I just can't help myself. I just took the last row of the ear flaps off so they were less pointy.

Now onto the Quilt projects...

I finished my Walk in the Woods Disappearing 9-Patch quilt on Friday. See the full post here. I just adore this quilt and so does my little Miya. It went together so quickly! All told I only sewed on it four different days!

I got a bunch of new fabric in the mail. Here's my littlest man carrying my box that weighed eight pounds. That's about 1/3 his total weight. I certainly can't carry 1/3 my totally weight and smile at the same time!

Here it is! YUMMY! I got four jelly rolls of Sentiments by 3 Sisters for Moda for my SIL Suzi's quilt. I got one jelly roll of Meadow by Blackbird Designs for Moda which will be for my MIL. I got myself two rolls of Serenade by Kate Spain (LOVE HER!) and one of Leaf Bella solids which will turn into a bed quilt for me. These rolls will need to be supplemented with yardage but I figured I'd get the rolls while they were on sale. Judi The Green Fairy filled that order for me during her massive Jelly roll sale and threw in a pen. Need I mention the fabulousness of the Green Fairy? She's pretty awesome! Also here is a bunch of yardage I got from Erica's (another store I love) from the Papillon line also by 3 Sisters for Moda. They will become a quilt for my mother if I can uncover my cutting table this week.

As I mentioned above I also joined my first ever fabric swap this week. It's the Tetris Color Charm Swap. I don't think I could geek out any more about this! We each buy two yards of fabric in two colors and cut them into 112 charms each for a total of 224 charms. Then Melissa from Happy Quilting swaps them all around and we have all the fabric we need in all the colors for the Tetris quilt-a-long! The colors are assigned. I received my color assignment this morning (red and orange) and jumped on it. I picked out and purchased my colors with lightning speed and I just received an email from Intrepid Thread that they have been shipped. I can't wait to see what other people picked and what I'll be getting! Here's what I picked...

Fruit Slice - Digi in Tomato

Fruit Slice - Seeds in Tangerine

As always thanks for stopping by and here's to another productive week!

Monday, June 18, 2012

I finished my Walk in the Woods disappearing 9-patch quilt top on Friday (6/15) and I just love it! It looks so fancy and was so fast and easy! As part of the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop for new bloggers they have a link up on Mondays. I thought this would be a perfect post to share to celebrate my recent finish.

I'm also linking up with Lynne at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day. I've seen a lot of the blogs I read linking up and I thought it would be fun to add my name to the list and to check out more of the bloggers there.

While there and linking up I found out about the Small Blog Meet. It's for bloggers with fewer than 50 followers to meet other bloggers like them and get to know more people. With 10 lovely followers I fit the bill! I may be up all night reading all the fun posts that other bloggers have linked up to all these things! ;)

Now, on to the quilt. I used four charm packs and one layer cake of A Walk in the Woods by Aneela Hoey for Moda. I got the layer cake on a super sale around Christmas time but after working it out it would have been much easier just to get four charm packs instead of cutting the layer cake in fours.

I love reading about other people's processes so here's how the quilt broke down with fun pictures...

6/1 - I drew up my pattern based on the idea found here. It came out to be 71.5" by 84.5" which will be perfect for my little girl's bed. I relied on the pattern a lot for placement and to know which row I was on while sewing to keep track of it all. It was time consuming but well worth it. The red dash fabric will be the binding and the gray will be the back.

I have a very organized and logical mind and really can't handle random. I knew I wanted this quilt to be random but I just didn't know how to achieve that. While thinking this through I stacked all of the charms by color then one pile of large prints, see how I just can't do random? I just sat and looked until I came up with a great idea.

To create random I got a brown grocery bag and I recruited my family. I gave my hubby and I two charm stacks each and then each of my big kids one stack. We took turns putting our charms into the bag one by one. Then we each stirred it up. Voila! Random and family fun in one!

There were some large prints that I didn't want to end up getting cut. If they were to be cut down there wouldn't be enough of anything showing to make it work. I put this in a bowl and stirred then make sure to use them in the corner pieces filing in the other pieces from the brown paper bag.

After sewing and pressing I laid them out into groups of nine. I tried to keep with the random theme but I didn't let any of the same fabric touch each other. It was kind of fun but difficult because each of my four kids tried to get involved. I then stacked them up in groups putting each group in a different orientation so I could tell which was which. I then cracked up my ipod and got sewing some more.

This is the end of one day's work. The first picture was taken at 11:37am and this one was at 10:12pm with various stops in between to make dinner, do dishes, play with and get the kid ready for bed. See what I mean about fast?! I cut one of the nine-patch squares up so I could see what it would look like. It's at the top of the picture. I got through half of the pile of nine-patch sewing which was pretty good.

6/2 - By 9pm the next night I had all the nine-patches sewn and then cut and turned. After a lot of playing around I ended with this layout. I wanted it to be more or less random so I just grabbed bits and started putting them down. The directional fabrics I kept all face up (my OCD taking over) and I balanced out the colors here and there. It worked out pretty well.

6/15 - After my hugely productive two days I had to take a break. There were other more pressing projects and this one was briefly put to the back burner. However after two more days of sewing the quilt top was finished. The rows took me about ten minutes each to sew including pressing (so fast!) and then to put the rows together with pressing took me an additional five minutes per row. I was so happy with how fast it went together but how fun and complex it looks!

6/15 - Here's a fun jaunty angle. Now I really have to get on taking that long arm quilting class so I can get this bad boy all the way finished!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Angela from Cut to Pieces mentioned a few weeks ago that she had interest in doing a Mario Brothers QAL and asked if anyone had interest. She said if enough people wanted to she'd do it. I quickly replied with an enthusiastic, YES! Apparently enough other people did too because the quilt along is now in the works. I'm so excited I can't stand it!

I have made or am in the process of making quilts for my two girls. I also want to make twin quilts for my boys but had a difficult time finding inspiration. Now I know what I'm going to do for my oldest. He loves Mario and video games and it seems like this is something that could grow with him easily. I can't wait to get started!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Hurray for another week of productivity! I finished the second crochet dress, bought a bunch of yarn for a new project (can't get enough crochet apparently), and finally purchased the fabric for my Mom's new quilt. I'm so excited for my finish and my new projects. I'm super-duper over-the-moon excited that I have some new followers. I love all nine of you! I'm also jazzed it's WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Let's start with the finish...

Another one bites the dust! This one was so much faster than the last attempt. I started it on 6/3 and finished today 6/13. Ten days is pretty dang good if you ask me. I also already knew what it was supposed to look like so that helped a lot. I found the stitches were easier too. I have no plans to make another one but that's what I said last time so I guess you never know. ;)

Here's the detail. It's so pretty! It's funny though because you'd think the bottom being all open would go faster than the top which is pretty solid but that's so not the case. The bottom took about an hour for each flower row, less for the other ones but still a good chunk of time.

And here's the back. I opted for the shorter length again but then decided it was too short for this particular baby, she's a big girl for her age, and added a few more rows. Thus, it ended not the short length but not the long one either. It should hopefully hit her mid-calf.

Progress...
- A Walk in the Woods quilt - I made one of 13 rows. I was going to take a picture but it's really difficult since it's crazy wide but not at all long. It only took me about ten minutes so I expect that quilt to go together pretty quickly this week.
- Nana Papillon quilt - I bought the fabric! I'm so excited! I bought it Friday from Ericas.com (love them!) and they shipped it out yesterday. I'm doing the American Pinwheels pattern found on Moda Bake Shop written by Crystal from Hendrixville. Hopefully I get my Walk in the Woods quilt done before this stuff gets here.

New Projects...
- Crochet baby hats. I'm loving the Rosie's Cozies charity that Betsy from The Dainty Daisy is doing. I think it is truly inspired. Two of my boys were in the NICU after their early births and I know what it's like to have a sick newborn. So I bought a bunch of yarn and decided I'd take her lead and make some for my local NICU. I'm pretty excited about this and even though I kind of need a break from crochet after that big dress I may just jump right into it away.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Recently I joined my first ever blog hop!! I'm so excited to be a part of the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop! The idea behind this is that new bloggers need to get their names and blogs out there and this is a fantastic medium for them to do it. I get so excited by each and every comment and the various hits of people coming to my page and I image other bloggers out there are just like me. It's a fun opportunity to "meet" a bunch of new people in blogland. I've loved stopping by and seeing the different blogs featured on Tuesday and Thursday of every week. Also on Mondays at Plum and June there is a post promoting the hop usually with advice on how to be a better blogger and a linky party.

My turn on the hop isn't until September 13th so I have lots of time to prepare. She suggests a tutorial or a giveaway to help promote readership. I've yet to do either so I have my work cut out for me in the next three month to practice both. ;) Any suggestions? Thoughts?

For those of you who are interested here's the (rather lengthy) schedule of where and when to hop.

Participants and Schedule:

*If you are joining us after May 22, be sure to catch up and visit the bloggers that have already introduced themselves!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I FINALLY caught up with the Skill Builder Sampler. I'm so excited! Most of them look just perfect only a few were off but mostly it was minor and I'm happy to say my skills have improved. I'm equally happy that it's WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and I can use the link up as a means for sharing my achievement with a larger audience!

This week I finished my last five blocks to catch up on the sampler. There are only three left in the series and the tutorials for those have yet to be written. I love them all! Also this week I started and nearly finished my disappearing nine-patch quilt done in A Walk in the Woods fabric line. LOVE! It's so crazy fast! I started it on Friday and by Sunday I was sewing the rows together and only three hours away from a finished quilt top (that has sadly yet to be finished). I also started another crochet gown. This one is for a nine month-old baby girl that is going to use it later this month. I've been a busy bee again!

Now for the fun part...

Block #33 - Mini Lone Star - Okay, I have NO idea what happened to the middle of this guy. No clue at all. Notice the little 3D lump? Hopefully Leila can help me fix it because I really don't want to start over.

Block #14 - Crazy Quilt Block - I was saving this one until near the end because I knew I'd have a bunch of otherwise useless scraps and this block is perfect for those! I'm not typically a crazy fabric kind of person but this was fun to make. I just went crazy!

Block #23 - Drunkard's Path. I saw this idea here and loved it! So when it was time to make the drunkard's path block I decided to make the blocks 3" finished and create the scales pattern. I love how it turned out and I may have to make a bigger one someday.

Block #24 - Curved 9-Patch - I love this block! It was so easy and fun and it turned out perfectly! I will be making this one again! I love the sampler because it introduces me to blocks that I don't know that I would have tried and some that I wanted to badly. I learned what ones are great for a whole quilt and others that are so not worth the effort.

A Walk in the Woods Disappearing 9-Patch (first found the idea here). LOVE! Seriously, for so many reasons. It's fast, super duper easy, and it looks awesome! This is only after three days of my slave-driving daughter insisting I'd work on it at every moment. Once I was relaxing on the couch and she said, "You shouldn't just sit there, you should relax while working on my quilt!" She was so sweet while she was saying it, it didn't sound as harsh as you might think and I couldn't resist. I was hoping to get it done but I've had so many other things to do.

Block #22 - Flowering Snowball - This is seriously the block that did not want to get made! The template was horrible to print. I literally tried 12 times to no avail. In the end Leila printed it up and I got it from her. My block did turn out perfectly square, which I love, but it's square at 11.75" instead of 12.5", bummer! I guess I'll just have to trim it down and add a border. It's so fun either way!

What? This again? I know I just finished one here but I couldn't resist making another one for another friend. One of my good friends from church and her family are going to the temple this month to be sealed together. As a Mormon I believe that families can be together in heaven. Going to the temple to be sealed one of the most important steps to ensure this. Want to know more? Click here. I am super excited for them! While in the temple they are all supposed to wear white. I thought it would be fun to make their 9 month a crochet dress so she could keep it forever. When I suggested this to my friend she was so excited. I only have a week and a half to finish it so I'd better get moving! The last one took me 14 days but it was smaller. I have the top half done here and I'm about ready to start on the flower skirt. It's much faster the second time around.

Hop on over to the WiP Wednesday post to see what other crafty people have been up to this week and thanks for stopping by!